The senior from UC Davis is standing out as Utah heads into fall camp home stretch.
On Monday, coach Kyle Whittingham shared that UC Davis transfer Blake Cotton is emerging in the race to be one of Utah’s starting outside cornerbacks.
“Blake Cotton, I’d say he’s got the edge right now,” Whittingham said.
While that acknowledgement from the head coach is surely nice to hear after a grueling first couple weeks of fall camp, Cotton knows there’s still a long way to go until the first depth chart is released.
“I mean, shoot, we can all play, and I’m never going to be in the mindset where I think a spot is solidified. Just got to keep working every day. We got a talented group, for sure,” Cotton told the Deseret News.
Scooby Davis, who assumed one of the starting outside cornerback jobs last year after Kenan Johnson went down with an injury in the season opener, has locked up one of the outside cornerback jobs.
Smith Snowden, who started last season at nickel, will play that spot again, though when Utah goes to a two-cornerback look, Snowden will likely be on the field.
With Zemaiah Vaughn’s graduation and the transfer of Cam Calhoun to Alabama, there was a hole at cornerback. Utah hit the transfer portal hard to address it, setting up for an intense camp battle.
Texas A&M transfer Don Saunders, Garden City Community College transfer Rock Caldwell and Auburn transfer JC Hart are all vying to win the starting job — or at least a spot in the rotation — as Utah’s Aug. 30 opener at UCLA nears.
So far, it’s been Cotton who has emerged as the leader.
A three-year veteran at UC Davis, where he totaled 50 tackles and nine pass breakups, Cotton entered the transfer portal this winter. Utah was immediately at the top of his list.
“What stood out for me was just the history, especially with DBs and the experience with the coaching staff. A lot of our coaches have been here 10-plus years, so I think that’s what stood out to me,” Cotton said.
Cotton has embraced being coached by cornerbacks chief Sharrieff Shah, who is known for his intensity and getting the best out of his players.
“It feels great to be in a position to have a coach that holds you to such a high standard every day, and the energy never goes down,” Cotton said.
The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Cotton is also enjoying playing in Morgan Scalley’s defense, which plays a lot of man coverage and asks a lot of its cornerbacks.
“Obviously, all the man we play, we’re going to be on that island most of the time, so we got to just buckle down and play our best,” Cotton said.
Cotton, and the rest of Utah’s defense, have received an early test in fall camp while facing Devon Dampier and the rest of the Ute offense — especially when he tucks the ball and runs.
“We play a lot of man, and Dev, obviously he can run, so he scrambles, so that challenges us to stay on our man as long as possible,” Cotton said. “Heavy RPO team too, so we got to not get too picky and have good eyes and stuff like that.”
The two attributes that Cotton feels have helped him the most during Utah’s fall camp are his physicality and his mindset.
As a cornerback, he has to have a short mind — and in the Big 12 especially, where it seemed contact between cornerbacks and receivers was let go more often than in the Pac-12, physicality is important.
“In terms of physicality, you just got to be smart, especially as a DB. I feel like most of the calls are biased towards the offense, so we got to be smart with what we do. For example, if we’re going to tug, we’ve got to tug low so that they can’t see,” Cotton said.
Davis, who has helped Cotton through learning the defense, said that there’s been a big jump in Cotton’s game from spring to fall.
“He’s gotten better every day and still getting better,” Davis said.
Prior to fall camp starting, Whittingham expressed that he’d like to get the outside cornerback position opposite Davis settled “earlier rather than later in camp.”
If Cotton keeps up his current level of play, that could happen, but until the race is over, it will continue to be a tight one.
“For me, development has been really my emphasis … just taking what the coaches are saying and taking one step forward every day,” Cotton said.
Category: General Sports
